


Don't Let Me Fade Away

by ded_i_am_just_ded



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Angst?, But this was fun to write - Freeform, Coz there's no pairings, Mermaids, Open ended, Sea foam - Freeform, Seafoam, d2diamond's writing challenge, pretty sure no one will read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 00:59:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14148462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ded_i_am_just_ded/pseuds/ded_i_am_just_ded
Summary: D2Diamond's sea foam challenge!She wants to cry again, but tears mean little when everything is water.Mila wants to save Yuri from himself.





	Don't Let Me Fade Away

**Author's Note:**

> [D2Diamond](https://d2diamond.tumblr.com/post/171237794331/d2diamond-d2diamond-welcome-to-the-yuri) challenged the Yuri!!! On Ice community to a brilliant writing challenge and I've enjoyed writing this.
> 
> Title from [Wage War's song](https://youtu.be/q9bu5BI03WA) with the same title.

Mila waits at the end of the pier.

Eventually, along the shoreline, she'll see her best friend. It takes longer every time she comes to see him. She twists herself in knots, her brilliant red and orange tail flinging reflections of the sunlight like beacons towards the water's edge, like she's signaling him that she's here. It's pointless, though, he'll come when he's ready.

She could be waiting for hours, like she's done in the past. She's come for days with no sign of him. Eventually, though, the foam folds in on itself, repeating with the crash of the water to the sand. When it starts, she pushes herself into the shallow water and waits until he finally, finally builds himself into a body.

Yuri has always been beautiful. Rightful heir to the Atlantic Empire throne, he once had hair like sunlight and long, thin arms laced with scales and sheer webbing in his armpits and a black and fuschia tail anyone would be envious of. Now, he is just a shadow of his former self, built of blues and yellows, his body an ever moving mass of tightly packed bubbles and seaweed. 

Mila waits until she's acknowledged, doesn't know if he's completely present or if part of him is somewhere else. He smiles at her, like everything is alright, like she could hug him and he wouldn't fall apart. She wants to cry again, but tears mean little when everything is water.

Instead, she says, “You're late.” Like he has any sense of time anymore. He shrugs and sweeps his arm into the water, throwing a wave in her direction as his arm disintegrates them reforms, Mila grins and pulls herself closer, “I've missed you. Georgi wants to see you.”

Yuri's head snaps up, then back and forth. It breaks Mila’s heart. She would give almost anything to hear his voice again, to laugh with him as they chase whales and tease sharks.

But Yuri doesn't have a tail anymore. He doesn't breathe through gills and he can't see the depths of the ocean with her. Yuri is trapped between worlds, the one he came from and the one he desperately wanted to be a part of, cursed to watch both from the edges. Mila would give Yuri anything if he could ask for it.

But he won't. She knows him well enough to know he thinks he deserves this. All he's ever done leading up to the moment his body disintegrated in the waves, she can see it in his movements.

She splashes water at him to keep his attention, “I won't bring him but, Yuri, have you made any progress? Have you seen him?” She pauses, “Have you seen them?”

Another shake of the head, then Yuri is lifting his arms to pantomime a building, then points down the beach, like she could see anything.

“Maybe it's time to ask the sea witch.” She hates the words as they escape her, “You can't stay like this forever.”

She can read the sadness in his body language. He touches his chest, then rips a hole in it. It remains for only a moment before being filled in again. He holds the piece he'd torn and looks at it like it's his entire world. Maybe it is now.

“Yuri.” He tears his eyes from the foam in his hand and looks at her. She realizes he's getting smaller, “No, please. Don't go yet.” He shrugs his shoulders as his stomach dissolves in the waves, “I'm sorry, Yuri, don't leave yet!” 

But he looks down the coast line and let's himself go. She says his name one more time, but there's no reply. He is nothing but seafoam and she is nothing but alone.

▪▪▪

The witch of the seven seas is made of black and diamond-like scales. He glitters as he moves, twists his hands together then separates them to dig nails into the soft flesh of his dinner. Mila watches him as he contemplates. She knows he's just as worried as she is.

Yuri would never want to see the witch because they share a name. Because the other “stole” his only cousin, enchanted him into marriage and whisked him away from the royal court. Everyone knows Viktor wanted nothing to do with royalty long before then, but Yuri had chosen to ignore that fact. Now, he avoids saving himself by avoiding the witch.

Yuuri’s fingers flex, then he lifts a chunk of his prey to his lips and eats it, eyes moving to acknowledge Mila again. When he's swallowed, his gills flare in distress, “If he doesn't want to be helped, there's not much we can do.” He diverts his eyes to look around the cavern they've met in, “The heart wants what it wants, and neither you nor I can change it for him.”

Mila closes her eyes and breathes, mourns. When she opens them again, the sea witch is still watching her. She manages a broken smile to him, “Only _he_ can, right? Maybe I can-"

“Mila.” He stops her from finishing her desperate thought, “Yuri will do what he always has; exactly what he wants to do. That he's cursed himself like he has…the heart is a fickle thing and if he's accepted it, then maybe you should to.”

Mila watches him eat and knows she can't-won't ever accept it. She’s lost without the constant in her life, his snarky comments and brilliant mind. He was her rock, and she thought she was his. But the foundation crumbled when the human ship sank to their depths. When he'd saved that human and took him to shore.

There are laws to follow; let humans die where they land, never try to save them, stay away from the surface. Yuri broke all of them in one go. And then Yuri did the worst thing possible. He fell in love.

But the human he'd saved thought nothing of him. A myth that he'd imagined, a wild dream he forgot when the sun came up again. And Mila watched Yuri fall apart, fade away.

Mila doesn't want to watch anymore. She can't imagine how lonely Yuri is. How he guards the coastlines like he could save himself if that human would just return. It tears her heart apart just to think of.

She leaves the sea witch to his meal. There's a dark hole forming in her chest, and she can't help thinking about if she loses him completely. That hole will just consume her when that happens. If that happens, she corrects herself.

▪▪▪

There's a storm rolling above, it lights the water in spurts, makes noises louder that the waves, makes currents dangerous and it becomes a thing everyone hides from. Mila goes to the pier anyway. She holds on to the pylon and watches the water move against the shore from below. The ships fight their tie-downs and try to escape their places. Over the sound of the storm, she hears voices. There are humans out in the storm. Perhaps trying to save their ships. She let's go and let's the current push her away, far enough that she feels safe to surface. And, yes, there are four humans, one yelling and pointing and three following his orders, fighting wild winds and rain that hits Mila like urchin spines. She starts to suck down again when something catches her eye.

Yuri.

He's formed down the coastline, half figured and watching the humans work. She heads for him. He doesn't seem surprised and Mila suspects Yuri is more than foam, that he's one with the actual sea and can sense her anywhere she goes. He just smiles sadly at her and gestures at the pier. She turns to look again, but humans all look the same to her, she just knows that one of them broke her best friend down. Made him into this...this creature she's never seen before, that she'd been told of in childhood fairy tales. The lonely sea foam that will eventually fade away.

She wonders how long that takes. Even now, he dissolves and reforms, but that could be the storm, and she hopes that's all it is.

▪▪▪

It's months before she sees him again, and he's just a shadow of himself. When she sees him, he's small, and mostly transparent. She can't even make out the features on his face.

She doesn't speak, drags herself into the surf and turns to watch the ocean stretch to the horizon. There's a gentle wind that dries her exposed skin, sends shivers up her spine. She knows he's there beside her. 

When the sun dips to the horizon, she's alone again.


End file.
